I work on my project using my Mac at home. When I am out with my Editor, I use my iPad. I placed my document in a folder on Dropbox and that is the one I open on my Mac. I can't exactly recall how I set up my iPad version of Scrivener to access the file.

Every time I open my document on either my Mac or my iPad, it asks if I want to sync with Dropbox. I am always amazed at how many files get synced, even if I have not made a single change on either my Mac or my iPad version. Next I am presented with a message telling me that conflicts were found and the conflict documents have been placed in something called Synced Documents. I would simply become bewildered if I had to compare all these documents looking for the conflicts. That sort of defeats the purpose of the whole exercise. Even at this moment, I have the document open on my Mac and Scrivener open on my iPad, but not the document. The Mac version is asking if I want to, "Update project with changes from mobile version." I have already done the update earlier this morning and have not been working on my project since then.

I am always concerned that my edits are not being combined into my main working document. I just can't remember all the little changes I have made while with my Editor, so I may be in serious hot water, if this is not working correctly.

My Mac version just did a sync. A message said that, "All conflicts were resolved." Next came a message stating, "File Were Recovered." This included a long explanation. There is a way to disable this by holding down the Option key while opening the document, but I don't know if I want to do that.

I seem to have a number of confusing things going on that I don't understand and don't know what to do about. I have been a pretty heavy Mac user for around 25 years, so I sort of know my way around. This syncing stuff does bug me though. It make me nervous so I end up just saying to myself, "I hope this all worked out somehow."

RGrahame wrote:Even at this moment, I have the document open on my Mac and Scrivener open on my iPad, but not the document.

I may have misunderstood, but it sounds like you have the same Scrivener project open simultaneously on both your Mac and your iPad.

If that is the case, you should change that habit.

Best practice--safest practice--is to follow these steps: 1) close the project on Device A, 2) confirm that Device A has finished syncing with DropBox, 3) confirm that Device B has finished syncing with DropBox, and finally 4) open the project on Device B.

If you adopt that habit, you should stop seeing warnings about conflicts.

…it sounds like you have the same Scrivener project open simultaneously on both your Mac and your iPad.

Actually, you are correct. I have been keeping my book document open on my Mac all the time, in case I want to work on it. I may not be doing anything when I am working with it on my iPad, but it is still open on my Mac.

What are the chances that my book may be, well, messed up now? I just keep working on the main documents and ignore the ones pulled aside through all these synching conflicts. Is that OK?

I’d say it’s more a matter of being very careful, in this case, than a necessity. The sync system is in fact designed so that you can leave a project open on your computer and step away, using the mobile for a while without having to return to you desk and close the project.

You will of course still want to make sure that the Mac is all done uploading before doing so, and vice versa, that all changes on the phone are been fully downloaded to the Mac before syncing the open project. That is the most important thing to keep tabs on no matter which practice you take. You will nearly always cause conflicts if trying to sync before both devices have the same information to work from.

Now what you don’t want to do is try that with two Macs, or two iDevices. It is specifically a concession to Mac/PC + one device.

.:.Ioa Petra'ka“Whole sight, or all the rest is desolation.” —John Fowles

My apologies if this has been previously addressed! I have Scrivener on one laptop but not another (both Macs). I am still new to Scrivener, but I decided to save a current project in Dropbox so that (a) there might be an added layer of backup protection through the cloud, and (b) I might access it from the second laptop. Of course, on the second laptop, I cannot open Scrivener because I don't have the app installed there, but I can access the individual RTF documents that are compiled within the project. Is it safe to work on these and save new versions to be accessed on the first laptop, or might that cause problems? Thanks for any input!

mct75 wrote:Of course, on the second laptop, I cannot open Scrivener because I don't have the app installed there, but I can access the individual RTF documents that are compiled within the project. Is it safe to work on these and save new versions to be accessed on the first laptop, or might that cause problems?

No. Don't do this.

This is unsafe, and almost guaranteed to damage your project.

It is not safe to edit the contents of a Scrivener project with any tool other than Scrivener itself.

If you need to work on files outside of Scrivener, the appropriate mechanism is the Sync with External Folder command.

Initially, it was a question of cost, although Scrivener is relatively affordable. I need to learn more, but if I do purchase for the second laptop, I need to know that I can sync my projects across machines. Again, something I need to learn.

mct75 wrote:Of course, on the second laptop, I cannot open Scrivener because I don't have the app installed there, but I can access the individual RTF documents that are compiled within the project. Is it safe to work on these and save new versions to be accessed on the first laptop, or might that cause problems?

No. Don't do this.

This is unsafe, and almost guaranteed to damage your project.

It is not safe to edit the contents of a Scrivener project with any tool other than Scrivener itself.

If you need to work on files outside of Scrivener, the appropriate mechanism is the Sync with External Folder command.

Initially, it was a question of cost, although Scrivener is relatively affordable. I need to learn more, but if I do purchase for the second laptop, I need to know that I can sync my projects across machines. Again, something I need to learn.

You don't need a second license to install Scrivener on a second Mac (or second PC). You only need two licenses if you are working cross-platform: one Mac and one PC, for instance.

Initially, it was a question of cost, although Scrivener is relatively affordable. I need to learn more, but if I do purchase for the second laptop, I need to know that I can sync my projects across machines. Again, something I need to learn.

You don't need a second license to install Scrivener on a second Mac (or second PC). You only need two licenses if you are working cross-platform: one Mac and one PC, for instance.

Katherine

I had no idea... clearly so much to learn. Thank you -- I really appreciate the prompt help!

On my MacBook, when my Scrivener file is in the Apps > Scrivener file and I open the file I get this: “Project not in a recommended save location. The project “Xxx.scriv" is stored inside its own automatic backups folder. This could potentially result in data loss in the event of an automatic backup trying to overwrite the current project file. It is therefore strongly recommended that you close the project and move it to a different location.

So I take the file out so that it is just in the Apps folder. On my iPad, I open the file and it says”Invalid Project. The project cannot be opened because it does not contain a valid binder structure file. Please ensure that the project has been fully uploaded from other devices and then try syncing with Dropbox again.”

I inadvertently had Scrivener open on two computers. I was working on my laptop but had the app open on my desktop. When I closed the desktop, it backup up without giving me any warning. Now the only thing that opens on my desktop is the old version without any of my changes. I had backed up the changes in dropbox and can open them in dropbox on my desk top but Scrivener will not open the backed up file.I am afraid to open the laptop as it will wipe out all of my changes that I hope are still on there.Is there any way to resolve this?